The Energon Pub

Last month I went on a family trip to London, and as soon as I knew we were going I planned to try and stop by the Royal Navy Submarine Museum to see the HMS Alliance!

It was an hour and a half train ride from London to Portsmouth harbor, and then a 5 minute ferry to Gosport to get to the museum. My first surprise upon arrival was that the ticket booth/turnstiles from the movie aren't there! They must have been made specifically for the movie, as the actual ticket location is inside that building off to the side.



While we're outside, here's some pics of my custom TLK War Hammer Bumblebee in the spot that the actual Camaro drove on in the movie!


Some more pics of the exterior, you may notice (or may already have from watching the movie) that there is no glass at the front of the sub like there is for the underwater scenes in the movie. I guess the Alliance in the movie did some transforming once it hit open water, because the CG model used for the underwater scenes is a very different submarine that has some extra fins, a glass front, and a deck gun (Fun fact, the Alliance used to have a deck gun, but it was removed during a later refit). You can also see that there's the Alliance's name and emblem on the front in the movie which was absent when I was there. I'm curious if this was added just for the movie, or just happened to be on the sub during filming and later removed.






Given what we know about the glass section, I assumed going into the tour that none of the scenes inside the sub in TLK were actually filmed inside the HMS Alliance. I was wrong! Almost all of the scenes inside the sub (the exception being, of course, the scenes where they're looking out the window) were actually filmed aboard the Alliance!

These two seats in the main control room of the sub use those levers to keep the sub steady and level while submerged. This is automated nowadays, but had to be done manually at the time! You can see these same chairs in the movie screenshot (Vivian is sitting on one)



In that movie screenshot you can also see both of the Alliance's periscopes. One is close on the left side and the other is just behind Vivian. You can look through both periscopes on the tour, which was neat!

Here's my Studio Series Cogman standing on part of that second periscope:



I'm out of attachments on this post, so I'll continue below:

It's set differently in the movie, but here's the table where Cade and Vivian sit after Cogman makes them dinner:



And here's the rear torpedo tubes! The Alliance has 6, 4 are forward facing and 2 are rear facing. That open one is where Cogman brings the fish back from in the movie, couldn't resist the opportunity to get a picture of my SS Cogman in that same location!




Also, a funny note on the Alliance, Burton mentions in the movie that it smells "quite disgusting" inside the submarine. It actually doesn't today (if you've ever been inside a military aircraft at a museum or air show, it smells just like that), but in active use it absolutely would have. The Alliance had a crew of 65 men crammed in close quarters with no showers, the majority of whom smoked)

That sums up my experience getting to see the HMS Alliance! It was a really cool visit and the tour was very informative, I'd absolutely recommend it if you get the chance, even if you're not a big fan of the movie!